Musical, and other, entertainment is a large industry. And, many business segments of the industry are significant revenue generators providing significant revenues and profits to the owners and operators of the businesses associated with the business segments.
Large numbers of consumers, for instance, purchase, or otherwise subscribe, to services to receive musical, and other, entertainment content. An economically-significant distribution system is well entrenched and involves all aspects of the industry, extending from the creation of the content to its ultimate delivery to the consumer. While the distribution system is essential to the supply of the content to the ultimate consumer, the entrenched nature of the conventional distribution system has not taken full advantage of technological advancements that could increase efficiencies of its operation. And, perhaps due to the vested interests of certain portions of the owners and operators of businesses associated with the industry and its continuation in its present form, significant changes that are permitted as a result of technological advancements in technologies have not been implemented in an integrated manner to increase the efficiencies of the distribution of the musical, and other, content.
Many technological advancements in digital, and other, communication technologies, for instance, have permitted the development and deployment of new types of communication systems. New types of communication systems provide for the effectuation, for instance, of new types of communication services, some of which had been previously unavailable or prohibitively expensive to implement.
Most generally, a communication system provides for the communication of data between a set of communication stations, thereby to permit the effectuation of a communication service. Some communication services permitted by way of some communication systems provide for the delivery of content to a consumer. Business content, entertainment content, and other types of content are delivered to a consumer by way of a communication system. A communication station forming a content source communicates the content by way of a communication channel to another communication station, forming a content destination. Subsequent to delivery of the content to the content destination, the content is converted into a form that is viewable, e.g., visually or audially, by the consumer.
In wireline communication systems, the communication channels upon which the content is communicated are defined upon wireline connections interconnecting the content source and the content destination. And, in radio communication systems, the communication channels upon which the content is communicated are defined upon radio channels, formed of portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. End-to-end communication of content is sometimes effectuated by way of both wireline and radio communication systems in which a portion of the communication path extending between the content source and content destination is formed of a wireline communication system and another portion of the communication path is formed of a radio communication system.
A telephonic communication system is an exemplary, conventional, wireline communication system that provides for the communication of content between content sources and content destinations. And, the Internet backbone is also exemplary of a communication system that provides for the communication of content between content sources and destinations. The Internet backbone permits the formation of relatively large bandwidth connections, and the use of the Internet backbone through which to communicate content permits relatively large amounts of content to be communicated at relatively high throughput rates.
Conventional, terrestrial radio and television systems and networks are exemplary of conventional, radio communication systems. Satellite-based radio, television, and other broadcast systems and networks are also exemplary of radio communication systems that are used to communicate content. Both terrestrial- and satellite-based radio communication systems provide large-area coverage.
While many different types of communication systems are available through which to communicate content, consumers of content delivered by way of many radio communication systems are by way of service subscriptions for the delivery of broadcasts of content or by way of non-paid systems for the delivery also of broadcast of content.
While such systems, and also wireline-based communication systems, are capable of providing to content consumers content on a more-individualized basis, such services have not been widely provided. And, instead, individualized distribution of content is more regularly carried out by way of conventional distribution systems, generally including retail distribution centers at which individualized content, such as recorded music performed by a particular content performer is made available to the consumer by way of point-of-sale purchase. Because conventional distribution systems generally include a chain of middlemen, a significant portion of the purchase price of the content is allocated to the middlemen of the distribution chain. As various modern communication systems are available to provide distribution of content on an individualized basis, increased efficiencies of content distribution, and the allocation of revenues derived therefrom, is possible. A mechanism by which to facilitate such distribution and allocation of revenues would therefore be advantageous.
It is in light of this background information related to the distribution of content to a consumer thereof that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.